History will harshly judge this war, and those of us who supported it, its long-term strategic effect, and so forth. In particular, it appears, that one of the main actors was Iran, and Iran has emerged as the core winner. But the hell unleashed by the incompetent occupation led to over 100,000 often gruesome civilian deaths in what was a nation-wide bloodbath of almost frenzied proportions.

I think it can be said, now more forcefully than ever, that whatever moral legitimacy this war once had is now gone forever.

I’ve been toying with a longer piece on the recently announced defence cuts. But in much simpler terms, one of the major criticisms of them is that Britain will no longer have the capability maintain an expeditionary force capable launching large scale operations in a conflict beyond our borders. The end result is that the US will no longer be able to rely on us to support their operations or provide multi-lateral international cover for the next such conflict as we may encounter. That we may never again launch another Iraq, or even Afghanistan.